BDS Tries, But Can't Break Dead Sea Product Sales

The Dead Sea products business is alive and well, despite the best efforts of the BDS crowd

Arutz 7 Staff, 04/04/13 11:04

Floating in the Dead Sea

Israel news photo: Flash 9i0

For as long as the Dead Sea has been around, people have been visiting it to take advantage of the legendary healing properties of its water, minerals, and mud. While the salt in the ocean is almost entirely sodium chloride (table salt), the Dead Sea contains a complex mixture of chloride and bromide salts of sodium, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and others, in addition to various sulfates.

The unique mixture of minerals at the bottom of the world has been recognized for thousands of years as a wonderful source of healing and youth for the skin and joints. Israel leads the way in bringing the Dead Sea to people around the world via personal care products.

The Dead Sea cosmetics industry brings prosperity to all residents and employees, regardless of race or religion. And the minerals are sourced from undisputed Israeli sources.

However, because some of the factories are on disputed lands, all Dead Sea products have fallen into the realm of the Boycott-Divest-Sanction (BDS) movement. Consequently, the largest of the Dead Sea brands, Ahava, has closed some of its stores.

Undeterred, loyal fans of Dead Sea products, from America to Singapore and from Italy to South Korea turn to the Internet to find their favorite products. Arik Barel, CEO of Jerusalem-based Judaica Webstore, says that the harder the forces of BDS work, the more business gets sent his way. Whether it’s the publicity the products receive from the BDS movement or the desire to fight against the BDS movement itself, business just isn’t drying up for Dead Sea cosmetics.

Who would have believed that the Dead Sea would become the front line in the war against Israel’s legitimacy? It is the site of the Biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and where Lot’s wife turned to a pillar of salt. Later, King David went into hiding in Ein Gedi, an oasis adjacent to the Dead Sea, when mad King Saul tried to murder him. And much later, less than two thousand years ago (virtually a blink of the eye in Jewish history!) the Zealots made their last stand for Jewish sovereignty against the Romans in King Herod’s mountaintop fortress of Masada on the shores of the Dead Sea.

As the Jews of the past faced physical persecution, Israeli businesses of today face economic persecution. The answer to this is easy – don’t let the BDS bullies win.